


Rose-Colored Glasses

by Dee_Queen_Of_Idiots, Probably_Insane



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: ADHD, Autism, Depression, Gen, He sees the other Links through the title, Inferiority Complex, Lets all give Wis hugs, Might wanna skip the first chapter if your sensitive to issues like these, Painful Overload, Self-Esteem Issues, Triforce piece, We just shoved so many problems on this poor baby, i feel bad, rsd, shut up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25581490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dee_Queen_Of_Idiots/pseuds/Dee_Queen_Of_Idiots, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Probably_Insane/pseuds/Probably_Insane
Summary: Meet Wis, the hero of Wisdom. And a certain someone who says some annoying stuff. Is he that bad? He thinks so.After all he doesn’t deserve it. The others are better than him.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Rose-Colored Glasses

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Twilit Sunset on the LU Discord for editing and rewriting a paragraph :D
> 
> Please note that this fic deals with very bad self esteem issues, mostly in this chapter. Please for the sake of your mental health if this triggers anything immediately skip this chapter.  
> You’re more important than a silly fic
> 
> This chapter might be rewritten eventually  
> Hope you enjoy :D

Link was still somehow considered a hero, and was still chosen by the Triforce of Wisdom, which he was wearing shrunken down as a necklace, but he didn’t expect to be put in a time-traveling group of heroes.

Heroes who were obviously better than him.

“Of course I’m a hero, I can do many things and I defeated Gannon.”

‘You and Zelda had defeated Gannon.’

“Great,” the man with pink hair said unenthusiastically.

‘That is the Hero of Legend. He has defeated Gannon three times. In his first adventure and when he defeated Gannon for the first time-‘  
He beat Gannon three times?! It took Link ages to get rid of the Gannon he was familiar with, and this guy managed to get rid of the pigface three times! Well that’s nothing new, you can’t do shit.  
Link began to clench his fist painfully to drown out all the noise from the Triforce piece. He had no doubts from the goddesses, or at least the ones he knew, were only trying to help educate and familiarize him with the world to make him a person, but the sheer amount of information being handed down to him was so overwhelming at times...

He beat Gannon three times, he must be great. It took Link ages to get rid of Gannon and this guy managed to get rid of the guy three times. Well that’s nothing new, you can’t do shit.

“What can you do?” The caped hero asked.

‘The Chosen hero by the goddess Hylia, also known as the Hero of the Skies. He defeated the god Demise. He also-‘

Link dug his nails harder into his palm. He was probably going to draw blood at this rate, but he didn’t care. Did the goddesses not see or understand that the loads of information were enough to cause him distress? It was times like this where he wished that the damn thing would stop giving him information.

“Well, I’m a hero, so I can do just about anything. On a good day, I can do anything,” he said, making a confident smile and cocking his head. 

Oh, there goes another lie. You can’t do anything. Do you even have good days?

“Okay boys, we don’t have time to chit-chat, we need to set up camp,” the one-eyed man said. “What’s your hero title?”

‘The Hero of Time. In your current timeline, he was killed by Ganondorf and his forces of evil. In another, he’s missing because he traveled back in time. The version you see before your eyes is happily married after starting to adventure at the age of nine and one hundred twenty days. His first adventure consisted of-’

Link dug his nails in even deeper, yep there’s the blood. Better let nobody see that you can’t even handle simple facts. And of course someone like him would be married, he could get anything. He’s an important hero even if he died in this timeline. At the age of nine? He can obviously function, why can’t you? Failure.

“The Hero of Wisdom, you can call me Wis.”

———————————————————————————

“Alright everyone, let's have camp here tonight,” the Hero of Time said sitting down on a log in a clear area suitable for camping. “Get your stuff unpacked and start setting up.”

“What about you, old man? Why aren't you setting up?” the Hero of Legend sassily asked.

The Hero of Time shot an unamused glare at him.

“Wis, can you hold this?” asked the Hero of Twilight.

“Of course, Hero of Twilight,” Wis replied as he received weird looks from the aforementioned hero. 

‘The Hero of Twilight is known for his calm demeanor and ability to say the correct things at the correct times.’

Damn it, Link, even the Triforce of Wisdom agrees you’re stupid. Even after traveling with the group for about two weeks, it seemed that Link could not stop referring to them by their Hero titles. You still do it, they don’t refer to you as The Hero of Wisdom, you’re just ‘Wis’, a shortened version of that title because you hardly deserve it.

“Wis, I said to give me back my blanket.”

“Oh, sorry, Hero of-” The hero took the blanket and walked away without saying anything.

Wait, he was holding a blanket? He didn’t even notice.

‘You have a bad time trying to pay attention to things.’

That wasn’t a lie; Wis was always bad at things like this. It seemed that, no matter how much attention to things he was supposed to give, he never could pay proper attention.  
He traipsed over to a free spot in the areas everyone was putting their bedrolls and threw his bag off his shoulder. He then scavenged through his disorganized bag looking for his bedroll. It wasn’t hard to find since it was the biggest thing in his bag, but Wis had to sift through the many other objects resting on top before he was able to pull it out.

“Wow, Wis, that's a lot of stuff,” Link heard the Hero of Warriors remark.

Quick, think of something!

“Excuuuuuse me, Hero of Warriors, all of this ‘stuff’ is very important. It-”

“Okay, I get the point,” the Hero of Warriors interrupted. “You and Legend should both compete; you're both hoarders,” he remarked as he walked away. 

‘The Hero of Legend is not a hoarder. He collects many things from faraway lands and keeps everything on him neat.’

Link looked at the disorganized mess inside his bag. He was definitely a hoarder. Nothing in here was as important as he claimed they were, nor were they neatly organized. If he wanted to be a great hero, he should really start on being neater. He would start working on it tomorrow.

His thoughts would then be interrupted by the shouting of one of the Heroes.

“Hey, everybody! Dinner is ready!”  
———————————————————————————  
The group was around the fire for dinner, chowing down upon another one of the Champion of the Wild’s delightful meals.

‘The Champion of the Wild learned many recipes from many people he met and through experimentation.’

Wis quickly learned that everyone liked the Champion because of his sublime cooking skills. He wondered if he could get the others to like him more by making something for them, but he had next-to-no cooking skills.

Link, what are you thinking? You can’t cook for shit.

Well, there went that plan… everybody he met hated him.

(“You’re so lazy!”)

(“Stop squirming like that!”)

(“Ha! You call yourself a hero?!”)

And he knew how experimentation ended up. 

(“Nice job, ‘Hero’!”)

(“Hey! Excuuuuse me, Princess!”)

That ruled out cooking.

Speaking of squirming, Wis hated being in place. 

He started moving by placing one leg on top of the other, which satisfied him for a few moments but then It didn’t. It quickly changed to, both his legs back to normal, then bouncing one of them. Then stopping to switch to the other leg. Chewing on his lips and nails. Then moving one leg to be tucked under the other. Playing with his hair. Fiddling his fingers, and repeating all if thus in different orders, all waiting for the rest of the group to finish.

“Wis, what on earth are you doing?” The Hero of Legend asked. 

“Huh?”

“You're moving around so weirdly. Stop it!”

Stop it? How could he stop it? It was something he could never control, and it frustrated him that nobody who asked him about it understood that fact.  
———————————————————————————  
Wis laid awake in his bedroll. He couldn't sleep because, if he did, he would likely wake up to being bombarded with information, and there was nothing he could do about it. 

Feeling a growing urge to pace about to try and calm down, he began to discreetly get up from his bedroll, hoping he wouldn’t make a sound or otherwise draw attention to himself in the process.

Wis had always found that pacing around would help him calm down whenever he became anxious or emotionally tense. Back when he still lived inside North Castle, he would pace in and around the castle grounds. As he would more often than not do this pacing ritual at nighttime, he had to be exceptionally wary of drawing attention to himself since, if Zelda, Spryte or any of the other castle residents caught him performing this ritual, he would be sent back to his room and forced to sleep, making him miserable the net morning from the subsequent information overload.

Speaking of Zelda, even if she was able to see his spirit that one time because she loved him, he was pretty sure that, deep down, she hated him, nor did she likely care about his issues because of all the stupid things he did to try and get her attention.

Why the hell did he want all that love and attention?! He’s just so stupid! Why couldn’t he just keep his stupid mouth shut? 

He walked through the forest, passing many trees until he found an open-enough spot and began pacing in circles.

Another thing that he bet everybody hated. His circling was probably making him look absolutely ridiculous to any onlookers, and not helping with this perception was how his arms were swaying about. It was usually a soft swaying that stayed close to his sides, but the swaying would become more exaggerated if he felt anxious or was experiencing intense emotions like he was doing now. 

Why did he feel the need to have to do these things, especially when he was expected to be asleep? Even if he was hesitant to go to sleep, it frustrated him that he had to do this ritual at an inappropriate time.

After pacing for what felt like forever, the allure of sleep was starting to get to Wis. He made his way back to the camp and, as discreetly as before, slipped back into his bedroll.  
He knew he was likely going to be bombarded with information as soon as he woke up, but the temptation to sleep was growing too strong. Regardless, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, as he’d likely need it on this new quest.  
———————————————————————————  
Wis groaned as he sat up from his bedroll and stretched his arms, awaiting the overload of information. 

And there it was. He winced as a barrage of facts ran through his head like they always did. There was no way he knew to deal with it because, even if he wanted to get rid of it, he was destined to protect the Triforce of Wisdom. He couldn’t let anything happen to it.

As he got out of his bedroll, he could see that someone was where the fire was last night.

The Hero of Legend.

‘The Hero of Legend learned many years ago how to wake up very early.’

Of course. Wis mostly learned from having to deal with stuff going through his brain, not from his own experiences.

The Hero of Wisdom was a false title. He was a dumbass.

He sat down on one of the logs.

“Hello.”

“Oh, you're up,” Legend said, “I’m waiting for the Wild child to make breakfast.”

More quiet moments passed when said Wild child got up.

“Hello Legend! Oh, hello, Wis,” he greeted, noticing the other hero, “You got up early today, I see?”

Wis nodded. The Champion proceeded to light a fire and pull out a pot. He put a lot of eggs in the pot and started cooking. 

About twenty minutes later, everyone, save for the Hero of the Skies, was awake and eating breakfast. 

“Well everyone, I think we know where we are headed.

“LON LON RANCH!” the others yelled, waking Sky up. 

“Where?” Wis inquired as Sky groggily walked over to the campfire and got handed a plate with an egg on it. 

“It’s Time’s home, you’ll get to meet his wife!” Wind exclaimed joyfully.

Of course the best of the group would be married and have the greatest life. Wis had the worst considering how he wasn’t able to accomplish anything significant, as far as he could tell.

“Hey Wis, what’s your family like?” Wind asked, “I have a sister and grandma.”

Of course, the sweetest member would get the greatest family. Meanwhile, all Wis’ life ever consisted of was “No!”, “Stop that!”, “To your room!”, and eventually, “Don’t come back!” 

Fearing nobody would care or take him seriously, he had to quickly come up with yet another lie. “Well my family is the best. I was the favorite of six siblings, and I got so many things. I left so I could save Hyrule, and now, I live in the castle with the princess,” he nervously laughed, “We’re best friends.”

‘Your relatives hated you, and likely so does Princess Zelda. You ran away from your old home because you couldn’t stand being there anymore’

“Well uh… that’s great,” Wind said before going back to conversing with Time about everything he wanted to do when they went back.

“Geez, Wis, arrogant much?” Legend asked. 

“Excuse me?!” Why are you asking Wis? You know.

“Ha, you think you're better than us just because of your family and you being friends with the princess?!” Legend yelled as he stood up and pointed at him. Everyone was staring.

Wis stood up and impulsively retorted, “M-maybe I do!” before running off, his feelings greatly hurt.

A coward. That’s what he was and always would be.

He sat down on a tree stump and let the tears flow freely down his face. Why did he always have to act like he was better than everyone else?

‘You act like this because of your self-esteem problems’

They weren’t “self-esteem problems” because he knew they were true.

‘You are not better than anyone, and you are acting like the worst. Going away would not be useful for the goddesses mission. But it would be better if you disappeared from the other heroes in some way to give them time. You should stay away from them  
and not talk to them.’

Isolate himself… that’s what he should do, seeing as how the group would probably be better off without him.  
———————————————————————————  
About an hour later, Wis reluctantly returned to the site. Everybody’s heads turned in his direction. He had made sure to wash the tears off his face so no one knew he couldn’t handle criticism.

“Wis,” Time’s voice rang through the clearing, “Come here.”

Shit. He’s in trouble, he knows it.

He trudged over to the oldest member of the group.

“Wis, you’re acting very high and mighty, almost like you’re better than everyone else. What’s going on?” Time explained casually, “Wis, don’t turn away from me! What’s wrong with you!?”

It was too late, he already had. The Hero of Time was clearly pissed at him. There was an undertone of anger in his words. Wis had to turn away so nobody could see his tears.

No one.  
———————————————————————————  
“Wis, pay attention! We’re making battle plans for the next time we’re attacked!” Warriors harshly reminded the Link whose attention was more drawn to some nearby bushes.

“Oh, yeah,” Wis said, turning his head back to the battle plans.

He really needed to get better at paying attention. Nobody likes someone who can’t pay attention. 

At the very least, nobody had brought up the incident that occurred earlier.  
Unfortunately, this moment of relief was short-lived, as the Triforce started to spew information out.

Wis winced in pain and looked down so no one could see his face, which was beginning to pale.

Warriors groaned, “Wis did you say something?”

“No…” 

“Good.”

Wis clenched his fist to the point of drawing blood again, adding on to the pain he was already suffering. He wanted the pain to stop so badly.   
———————————————————————————  
“Alright, everyone, you’d best get some rest for tomorrow!” announced one of the Heroes. 

Wis slowly made his way over to his bedroll and plopped down. His entire head hurt even when he pushed onto his palms even harder. Even when he was supposed to be resting, the damn Triforce piece still wouldn’t shut up.

In spite of this, he was determined to try and get a full rest.

Hopefully, this would all stop. Hopefully...  
———————————————————————————  
Time had estimated that they would arrive at Lon Lon Ranch in about two days if everything went smoothly.  
Everybody at the site were still excitedly discussing what they would be doing once they arrived at their destination, save for Wis, who was isolating himself from the group at his own advice. He had no idea as to what he would be doing, nor did he want to join in on the conversation.  
Not that anybody would want to talk to a failure like him who couldn't even do the simplest of tasks right. After all, why would somebody like someone so inferior to them?  
He was always alone. Nobody in the group seemed to like him.  
They could handle just about anything and were smart and successful.  
Unlike them, he was weak and an utter dumbass and failure.  
He was a terrible hero.  
——————————————————————————— 

“Hey Wis?” Wind asked running up to him, “What’s it like having the Triforce of Wisdom?”

“Huh?” Wis’ head turned towards the younger hero.

“All of us have the Triforce of Courage. It helps us with strength and fighting. What does the Triforce of Wisdom do?”

Shit, how could he answer that question? He hated over-exaggerating and lying, but he couldn’t let the Hero of Winds, or anyone for that fact, know that he couldn’t handle a little bit of pain or even simple information. Making them aware of that would make them hate him more than they already do.

As he began to lie once more, he plastered a fake smile on his face. “The Triforce of Wisdom helps you out when you need to do something hard. It tells you facts when you need them. It’s very useful,” Wis stated as he held onto the Triforce necklace whilst fighting a frown.

“Okay,” Wind said, “because Tetra, my Zelda who’s name actually isn’t Zelda, has it. But it doesn’t affect her. It must affect you because you're important!”

“Yeah I guess.” 

No, it didn’t. It affected him because he didn’t deserve the moniker of “hero” whatsoever.


End file.
